Acceptance
by ttiiggeerr
Summary: Draco turns Harry down and breaks his heart for the last time. He's forced to leave to prevent himself from living a life of heartbreak. Can be added on to depending on response. NEWLY EDITED FOR READER'S COMFORT


**This fic has been edited for easier reading.**

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Harry ran through the hallways, trying to outrun the terror and depression he knew awaited him when he would stop hearing the pounding of the blood in his ears. He tried outrunning so many different things in his life, and yet he could never seem to actually succeed in staying away from the pain forever.

Nevertheless, he would try as hard as he could.

When he finally did stop, he was panting and trying to stop the tears and sobs from letting themselves out of him. Had he not cared about Draco so much, he wouldn't have needed to hold in his emotions. However, as the case was, he landed on his knees in the cold stone floor hallway. He barely registered he had made it to the dungeons.

Again.

Slouching down into the fetal position, not caring if a stray person came down here to see him so upset, he just let go like he knew he would.

How could he do this to him? How dare Draco think that he could go out and find someone else the very morning Harry had planned on asking him out? How could Harry possibly live with himself knowing that if he had found Draco ten minutes before he had, he could have been spending the day with Draco out by the lake sharing stories and perhaps earning a kiss. He would be the one holding Draco to him, not some other person. And especially not Severus Snape.

Although most people knew that Snape was quiet and detached in class, Harry was one of the few that knew Snape was way too emotional for anyone to handle. Well, at least too much for Draco. Draco had his own problems to deal with, he didn't need that kind of pressure Snape was sure to inflict on him, intentional or otherwise.

Sure Harry had talked about it. He had confided in Hermione everything that had gone on with the situation. She hadn't liked the circumstances either, and had even claimed that she had thought that he would be really good for Draco.

"The problem," she had said. "is that he thinks relationships have to be physical all the time, even if they don't. And if a regular relationship is like the one between him and Blaise Zambini, then I shudder to know what Snape is going to put him through. I feel like this is all going to go downhill very, very quickly. Maybe not in the beginning. They might be together for, dare I say it, years before a fallout. But when it does fall...well let's just say I suspect that it'll be like tripping over the edge of the Grand Canyon."

"Okay. What's a Grand Canyon?"

"Huge cliffs in America. Anyway, I just hope that you don't beat yourself up too much." And he had pretended to be fine. He acted like he was okay. He didn't want to hide his pain from Hermione, but it was the only way he knew how to deal with these emotions.

When he finally registered that his tears were abiding, he looked up to find a certain Draco Malfoy standing in the hallway, surprise evident on his face.

"Harry? Are you okay?"

"How can I bloody well be okay when I'm forced to be in this position? How is that even possible? Here. Maybe this will give you a small inkling of an idea as to what's not right with me and why I've been acting odd lately. I was going to give this to you this morning, but circumstances changed fairly quickly." He handed Draco a sheet of parchment and fled to the Forbidden Forest. He didn't want to be around anyone whatsoever.

Meanwhile Draco unrolled the parchment to reveal a neat, calligraphic writing addressed to him. Basically saying that Harry wanted to ask Draco out.

But of course it was too late for it now. He was dating Severus and they would be together for a long, long time. He knew that by the time they broke up, if ever, Harry would likely be over him.

He found Harry later that night and told him as much.

"Yeah. Too bad that's what you said with Seamus. And Dean. And Blaise." Harry stood slowly, lifting himself from the trunk of a fallen Silver Oak he had been sitting on, and reached out as if to touch Draco's face while remaining several feet away. Letting his arm drop, he tried to not cry. He knew his eyes were sparkling, the moonlight reflecting off the tears welled up in his eyes.

"Just remember. Sometimes when you let a good thing go too many times, it may not come back. I know what I want from life. The question is: do you?"

With that being said Harry Potter walked away from Draco Malfoy, traveling deeper into the forest, never to be seen or heard from again.


End file.
